Cracked Gears On Athearn RS3 !

[zstripe]

Rich,

Is that better??Put a EDIT,in there,to change,‘‘fix’’,to ‘‘replace’’…

Cheers,

Frankie

[Mark_R]

The reply I got from Athearn was exactly as I expected it would be. If they didn’t request the cracked ones back, they would fall into that same debacle LifeLike fell into, giving out free gears to anyone who asked.

That being said, what’s going to stop folks from sending their LifeLike cracked gears to Athearn for a replacement ? Is there any visual difference between the two ?

Regardless, for me, it’s not worth the time and effort. The nearest UPS office is nearly an hour away and the nearest post office is fifteen minutes - as is the hobby shop that has packages of gears hanging on the wall.

Mark.

[jerryl]

Has anyone else been experiencing this ? I’ve now had my second Athearn RS3 arrive with cracked axle gears ! Three out of the four were cracked on both, and I don’t trust the last one to last long.

I’ve come to expect this with older Proto engines, but now Athearn as well ?

.With all of the changes in China’s manufacturing, I wouldn’t be surprised if the gears were made by the same company. Even “so called” competitors help each other when needed. A relative had an Acura with a bad transmission & he found out that he had a GM transmission & Acura wouldn’t honor the Acura guarantee on it.

[richhotrain]

I would have to say,I believe,I would fix them myself,just for cracked axle gears…Seeing as how He’s in Canada,He will save time and money by doing it himself,sad,but true…

Cheers,

Frank

Frank,

By “doing it himself”, do you mean picking up new ones at his LHS?

How would he “fix them himself”?

Rich

Ah But ,Rich a lot of us old time modelers keeps parts in stock so,we can fix problems ourselves without the need to send anything back or rushing off to the nearest hobby shop hoping the needed part is in stock.

One would be wise to stock basic parts…

Larry,

I thought for a moment that Frank was suggesting that the cracked gear could be repaired.

Rich